I finally bought a Christmas record.

[The Curmudgeon]

Like death and taxes, in the UK when Christmas rolls around the onslaught of Christmas songs are a predictable, inevitable chore. I don't know what it's like in the US, but "Christmas Songs" have now pretty much replaced Christmas carols as the sounds of the season. Some are obviously great, but overplayed to death every fucking year for the last thirty odd years. "I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday" (by Wizzard) "Merry Christmas Everybody" (Slade), "Merry Christmas Everyone" (Shakin' Stevens) Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney), "All I Want For Christmas is You" (Mariah Carey) and on and on and on. From mid-October to Christmas. Everywhere. Every. Fucking. Year.

Those are the classic songs, then there's the older standards (Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Sinatra) that still get played and the novelty garbage that still gets played as well. It is inescapable and I usually want no part of it.

Except for this year. The rest of the family are elsewhere this year and so it's just me and Mrs C this year. She's quite a festive spirit so I said I'd make more of a "Christmas" effort this year. I've arranged for us to go see actual Carol singers on Christmas Eve. I know, right? But I've also went and bought an actual Christmas album. But not of any of those songs mentioned before. This, friends, isn't just Christmas songs. This is Christmas MUSIC. This is



A commercial flop on the day of release (might have something to do with being released on the same day as, oh yeah, Kennedy being shot), it's now considered not only a holiday classic, but one of the best albums of all time. A selection of Christmas standards all with the mad-eyed meticulous steely perfection of the Phil Spector Wall of Sound (Brian Wilson was booted out of the studio because he "wasn't good enough" on the piano). It's been described as a "concept album before the phrase existed."

And it is so, SO good. I'm going to look like a weirdo playing Christmas songs in June, but so be it. Take a listen to this and see what I mean. This is the original song written by Spector, and it's become a bit of an alternative Christmas classic (U2 famously covered it in the 80's).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1cqGi8LCYo

Sleigh Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, White Christmas..all by Phil Spector's pop bands. It doesn't get any better.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[trashcanman]

I fucking despise Christmas songs in general. That one's decent, though, as is John Lennon's and The Pretender's. But it seems like almost every band I'm into at some point takes a shot at a holiday song. Queen, the Bosstones, even punk bands. The Vandals made a full album (which is actually awesomely satirical and saw one of the tracks made famous when No Doubt covered it) and Fear wrote the brief but effective Fuck Christmas. And on that note, enjoy this taste of the Vandals' annual Christmas Formal concert:


"Christmas means security. Security means weapons." Fucking love those guys.

[The Curmudgeon]

Well, I hope you're happy Trash I got abuse and finally kicked out of a meme page on Facebook because someone created a meme saying "this Christmas I'm going to cosplay as a bauble and bang myself from the tree" and I was like "pfft, you stole that joke from the Vandals." He didn't, as it happens but I just insisted he did. Banned.

That looks like a fun show. Those are the kind of gigs I love, where the band are funny and chatty. Nothing worse than watching some band go through the motions.

[trashcanman]

You're welcome. When you go to a Vandals show, you're inevitably getting an improvised comedy show on top of a punk concert. Ditto Guttermouth and the Dickies. Some of the hardest laughs I've ever had in public.

[The Curmudgeon]

So what's it like with Christmas music in the US, Trash? Is it like the scenario above? Do you get the Wizzard, Slade etc songs repeated every year?

[trashcanman]

Nope. Christmas music takes over the airwaves in mid-November and we pretty much get the same few old-ass songs sung by different artists over and over and over and over and over. Drives me nuts.